I thought this book was great. A little scary that augmented reality could take us here one day. On a side note, I was one of those Atari teens in 1982 and I beat Adventure, found the secret room, and received a hand signed congratulations letter from Atari, which I still have. The book really spoke to my inner geek. ( )

4.5/5 - Dinking a 1/2 a star off of this because of the writing - might have been a full star if I was reading the text and not listening to the audiobook. Wil Wheaton's narration MADE this. It was utterly fantastic. The story was thrilling, adventurous, and fun. ( )

I loved this book!! All the geeky, pop culture stuff made it even more awesome. :) well, okay, except the bits about Rush....gah. Couldn't they have used, say Platinum Blonde? The entire B side of the Alien Shores LP is about how aliens built the pyramids and stuff - wacky! and much less annoying than Rush, IMHO. Lol!!

Even despite all the stuff about a band I can't stand, this book was totally magnificent in all its nerdy brilliance. ( )

I knew this was going to be good from all the hype from friends, just didn't know I would like it THIS much. Cline has tapped into something here and I think it probably really works because it's something he loves as much as his readers love it. It's not just the nostalgia-fest though, anyone could write with a bunch of references to stuff "we grew up with" and it wouldn't turn out this good. The characters were believable, the plot was interesting, the pacing was good, really the only thing I can think to complain about was the lack of detail about the "real world", but that wasn't a big deal because most of the story takes place in the virtual world.

So this is going to be really hard to top but I hope to read more great stuff from Cline in the future. I also really hope there's not a sequel because I feel like this story has been told and it would spoil it to change anything. ( )

"Cline is an awe-inspiring vault of ‘80s trivia and miscellany, and from the novel’s opening pages to its intense, action-packed finale, he expertly weaves his knowledge into the story in a way that’s somehow both deliriously entertaining and also integral to the plot."

Ready Player One borrows liberally from the same Joseph Campbell plot requirements as all the beloved franchises it references, but in such a loving, deferential way that it becomes endearing. There’s a high learning curve to all of the little details Wade throws out about the world, and for anyone who doesn’t understand or love the same sect of pop culture Halliday enjoyed, Ready Player One is a tough read. But for readers in line with Cline’s obsessions, this is a guaranteed pleasure.

The breadth and cleverness of Mr. Cline’s imagination gets this daydream pretty far. But there comes a point when it’s clear that Wade lacks at least one dimension, and that gaming has overwhelmed everything else about this book.

Wikipedia in English (1)

At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut — part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera.

It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS — a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune — and remarkable power — to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved — that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly, the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt — among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life — and love — in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

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"Ready Player One takes place in the not-so-distant future--the world has turned into a very bleak place, but luckily there is OASIS, a virtual reality world that is a vast online utopia. People can plug into OASIS to play, go to school, earn money, and even meet other people (or at least they can meet their avatars), and for protagonist Wade Watts it certainly beats passing the time in his grim, poverty-stricken real life. Along with millions of other world-wide citizens, Wade dreams of finding three keys left behind by James Halliday, the now-deceased creator of OASIS and the richest man to have ever lived. The keys are rumored to be hidden inside OASIS, and whoever finds them will inherit Halliday's fortune. But Halliday has not made it easy. And there are real dangers in this virtual world. Stuffed to the gills with action, puzzles, nerdy romance, and 80s nostalgia, this high energy cyber-quest will make geeks everywhere feel like they were separated at birth from author Ernest Cline."--Chris Schluep, Amazon Best Book of the Month.… (more)